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Matt Moran

Matt Moran is vice president of business development for Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), where he communicates with pension funds, mutual funds, and financial advisors. He has delivered more than 200 presentations worldwide on the topics of managing volatility and adding income with option-writing strategies. Previously, he served trust counsel at Harris Bank and vice president at Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is an associate editor of two Institutional Investor publications — The Journal of Trading and The Journal of Index Investing. Mr. Moran holds JD and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois.

In the past year a number of news reporters and others have asked if the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) was at an unusually “low” level in light of all the worldwide geopolitical uncertainties. The average daily closing levels for the VIX Index are 19.4 since January 1990, but only 12.8 since June 2016.
At the 70th CFA Institute Annual Conference in May 2017, Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago opined that the “low” level of the VIX Index was one of the[...]

On September 27 in New York City, fifty financial professionals attended a panel discussion on Current Dynamics of the VIX Market.
SPEAKERS
I moderated the session that featured expert speakers Bob Dwyer of ProShares; Aymen Boukhari of Societe Generale, Joanne Hill of CBOE Vest Financial; and Vinit Srivastava of S&P Dow Jones Indices.
SOME OF THE TOPICS AND ISSUES DISCUSSED
Among the topics discussed were investor strategies and recent volume records for VIX futures[...]

Earlier this month CBOE and CAIA Association teamed up to present a panel discussion in New York City on Accessing the Volatility Risk Premium with Cash-Secured Put Writing. I was pleased to see great feedback on the event.
SPEAKERS
The panel discussion featured four speakers who are shown (left to right) in the above picture --
Derek Devens, Managing Director, Neuberger Berman
Robert Specht, Portfolio Manager, Additive Advisory and Capital
Tripp Zimmerman, CFA, Associate Director of Research,[...]

On September 25th a new daily volume record of 2.61 million contracts was set for options on the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®), as the VIX Index rose 6.5% to close at 10.21 that day.
TOP TEN VOLUME DAYS FOR VIX OPTIONS
Four of the top ten days for VIX options volume occurred in 2017.
NEWS COVERAGE OF TRADING ACTIVITY IN VIX OPTIONS AND VIX FUTURES
Recent news coverage has highlighted investor use of both VIX options and VIX futures.
A September 25 news story in Reuters entitled “VIX[...]

On September 12 CBOE Holdings, Inc. announced plans to expand its suite of product offerings tied to S&P Dow Jones Indices with the planned launch of options on the 10 S&P Select Sector Indices that comprise the S&P 500 Index, a key benchmark of the U.S. equities market.
Options will be available on 10 sectors that comprise the S&P 500, pending regulatory approval.
The new options are expected to hold particular market appeal for European investors[...]

Despite the fact that the average daily closing value of the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) is about 11.5 so far this year, VIX futures and options both had record days for volume and for open interest this month.
OPEN INTEREST RECORDS. VIX futures hit a new record for open interest with more than 673,000 contracts on August 7, and VIX options reached a new record for open interest with 14,783,380 contracts open on August 15.
VOLUME RECORDS. August 10 was an all-time record volume day[...]

Investors who wish to explore large-sized cash-settled index tools that can help manage global equity risk are taking a look at CBOE’s options on the MSCI EAFE® Index (ticker MXEA) and on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (ticker MXEF). These index options have the potential to generate more income by receiving options premiums, and to help protect a portfolio from damaging huge drawdowns. The combined aggregate open interest for MXEA and MXEF options grew from around 3,200 contacts[...]

The CBOE SKEW Index (SKEW) topped 142 on each of the first four trading days this week. The long-term daily average for the SKEW Index (since January 1990) is 118.8, but the daily average for the SKEW Index in 2017 (through August 17) is a much higher 134.5. CBOE SKEW Index values, which are calculated from weighted strips of out-of-the-money S&P 500 options, often rise to higher levels as investors become more fearful of a “black swan” event — an unexpected event of large magnitude[...]

A portfolio manager recently called me to discuss Mini-SPX (ticker XSP) options, and told me he is trading the XSP options and he liked several features about the XSP options, including the “no-early-call-away” feature, the tax treatment, the contract size, and the fact that the XSP options prices appeared to track pretty well the prices of the larger-sized options on the S&P 500® Index (ticker SPX).
GROWTH IN VOLUME FOR XSP OPTIONS
As shown in the chart below, the average[...]

The large-sized SPXW S&P 500 options with p.m.-settlement generated another strong figure of around 600,000 contracts for average daily volume in in June.
Key points about SPXW options include –
VOLUME. Average daily volume (a.d.v.) for SPXW options in June included 77,069 for the Monday expirations, 107,986 for mid-week expirations, and 267,955 for Friday expirations (see Exhibit 1 below);
MANY EXPIRATIONS. SPXW options have expirations on 9 upcoming dates in July (see Exhibit[...]

PUT Index and PUTW ETF Win Sharpe Indexing Award
By Matt Moran
On June 26 the CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Index (PUT) and the WisdomTree CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund ETF (PUTW) won the 2017 Index/ETF Product of the Year award at an annual ceremony that was presented by IMN and the Journal of Index Investing. The awards ceremony was held during the 22nd Annual Global Indexing and ETFs conference, a 3-day event with about 750 financial professionals (including reps of CBOE, Bats, and ETF.com)[...]

On June 20 MSCI, Inc. issued an announcement that noted (in part) –
“ … beginning in June 2018, it will include China A shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI ACWI Index. This decision has broad support from international institutional investors with whom MSCI consulted, primarily as a result of the positive impact on the accessibility of the China A market of both the Stock Connect program and the loosening by the local Chinese stock exchanges of pre-approval[...]

For managers of global index portfolios this week, a big issue is whether or not MSCI will add China A-Shares to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF). MSCI plans to announce its 2017 Market Classification Review on Tuesday, June 20, shortly after 4:30 p.m. EDT.
A June 17 headline to a Barron’s story stated --
“Will China Gain Entry to MSCI Indexes? The giant indexer has said no three years in a row, but this time may be different. Approval would offer a nice boost to China’s[...]

In regard to the popular S&P 500® options, on May 1, 2017, CBOE changed the symbol for existing SPXPM option series to option symbol SPXW. Beginning last month, CBOE is offering both SPX options with a.m.-settlement, and SPXW options with p.m.-settlement, on third Fridays of the month. This conversion was designed to allow greater ease of access for those looking to place spreads from week to week. We have received some very positive feedback from institutional investors on this change[...]

On June 1st the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) closed at 9.89. June 1st marked only the 14th day on which the VIX Index closed below 10 (its price history begins in 1990). Six of the 14 days on which the VIX Index closed below 10 occurred in 2017 (see Exhibit 1 below for a list of all 14 dates).
REMARKS AT CFA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
On May 21 through 24 I listened to several outstanding speakers 70th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Philadelphia. Speakers’ remarks that were among the most[...]

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Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person must receive a copy of Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (ODD). Copies of the ODD are available from your broker or from The Options Clearing Corporation, 125 S. Franklin Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60606. The information on this website is provided solely for general education and information purposes and therefore should not be considered complete, precise, or current. Many of the matters discussed are subject to detailed rules, regulations, and statutory provisions which should be referred to for additional detail and are subject to changes that may not be reflected in the website information. No statement within the website should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell a security or to provide investment advice. The inclusion of non-Cboe advertisements on the website should not be construed as an endorsement or an indication of the value of any product, service, or website. The Terms and Conditions govern use of this website and use of this website will be deemed acceptance of those Terms and Conditions.